A rumor is making the rounds that Zac Hanson, the youngest ofthe Tulsa-native hit trio Hanson, was killed in a bus accident inEurope. It's not true.

Of course, he is the barefoot one on the album cover, and“MMMBop'' played backwards does sound like, “Zac is dead.'' (It'sa joke, kids. Ask your parents.)

Sources at Hanson's record label and management group confirmedon Friday that the rumor was just that — and not a very funny one,either.

“You must be a star when rumors like this start floating aroundabout you, even if it is kind of sick,'' said Jolynn Matsamura,publicist at Mercury Records.

Students at Jenks East Middle School were crying in the halls onFriday morning when the rumor reached the Tulsa circuit. A Jenkscounselor said the rumor created “quite a stir'' and that studentswere “all in a twit'' upon arriving at school.

“Everyone was freaking out,'' said Jenks seventh-grader MaryEllerbach. “We were all crying.''

Most students said they had been told that someone else hadheard the report broadcast on KHTT, K-HITS 106.9 FM. However, thestation denies reporting the rumor.

“We never announced it. After a lot of calls about the news,though, we called Hanson's agent in Los Angeles, found out itwasn't true, and reported that,'' said KHTT operations manager SeanPhillips.

A Jenks student's mother who knows the Hanson family verifiedthe rumor as false and relayed the information to the school.

“Then all the kids chilled,'' a counselor said.

The rumor apparently originated in Europe and came ashore viathe Internet. It was in Oklahoma by mid-week; callers to a Thursdaynight radio show on KSPI in Stillwater (which featured the Tulsaband Fanzine) already were asking, “Is it true?''

These online "clips" reproduce a self-selection of my journalism (music etc) during the last 20+ years. It's a lotta stuff, but it only scratches the surface. I do not currently possess the time or resources to digitize the whole body of work. These posts are simply a bunch of pretty great days at the office.